The Pen Behind Pooh
About a week ago, I had a chance to talk by phone with Mark Henn. Never heard of him? Not surprising, perhaps, but I’m almost certain you’ve seen his work. Henn is one of the top animators at Walt Disney Studios, working on almost every 2-D American animated movie of consequence for the last 30 […]
Movie Monday: Harry Potter and the Box Office Record Book
The Boy Who Lived had a magical weekend at the multiplex. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 charmed its way to a massive—and I mean massive—$168.6 million take over the three-day run, hexing any and all adversaries that would dare challenge it. If some geeky blogger with a calculator took this week’s pics […]
Just Sit Right Back and You’ll Hear a Tale …
Emmy nominations were released this morning. AMC’s Mad Men again led the way with 19 nominations, including Best Drama. The show is angling for its fourth win in the category in as many years, but will face challenges from three shows on premium cable (HBO’s Game of Thrones and Boardwalk Empire and Showtime’s Dexter), one […]
Movie Monday: Transformers Still the Boss
The mighty machine that is Transformers: Dark of the Moon, rumbled, bumbled and stumbled its way to another box office victory, crushing Horrible Bosses and a wayward Zookeeper along the way like so much aluminum foil. The Michael Bay (at right) boomfest pounded its way to another $47 million, vaulting its overall take to $261 […]
Casey’s Crucible
Unless you’ve been visiting the moon of Titan for the last few days, you probably know by now that Casey Anthony, accused of killing her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee, was exonerated by a jury of her peers Tuesday. Lots of observers found the verdict shocking, especially Nancy Grace from CNN’s HLN. “The devil is dancing tonight!” […]
Movie Monday: Dark of the Box Office
You can’t keep a good machine down. Transformers: Dark of the Moon flew down to earth and claimed everything it saw for its own clanky empire. The numbers are a little confusing, what with the film opening last Tuesday and with a Fourth of July holiday thrown into the mix. But in short, the Transformers […]
The Sad Case of Amy Winehouse
I wonder whether 2010 will be known as “the age of the celebrity meltdown.” Singer Amy Winehouse is the latest star to fall—though, in truth, she’s had so many problems lately she didn’t have far to tumble. Ever since she stormed the Grammys in 2008, snagging five statuettes for her work on Back to Black, […]
What’s the Best Animated Movie Ever?
I’m a sucker for lists. I’m a big fan of animated movies. So when Time came out with a list of its Top 25 animated movies, I was as happy as if someone had given me a year-long membership to the Bacon Club. So many movies! So many opinions with which to quibble! And that’s […]
Movie Monday: Cars 2
So what if it suffered a couple of critical dings? So what if reviewers thought Pixar’s newest animated vehicle didn’t hum quite as smoothly as it ought? When Cars 2 raced into movie theaters Friday, it ran just fine. Cars 2 took a $68 million checkered flag this weekend, winning the box office derby and […]
Yosemite Slam
Plugged In recently published a story of mine called “Around the World in 80 Clicks,” which examined the amazing (and kinda scary) ability we have to go practically anywhere we want to via the Internet. I started by telling readers I was taking a “naycation” this year: A holiday via YouTube, where the only literal […]